“An article on Tuesday about a poll in which Americans fared poorly in answering questions about religion misspelled the name of a beatified Roman Catholic nun and Nobel Peace Prize winner. She was Mother Teresa, not Theresa.”
Giving a “form of legitimacy” to Druidry, Britain has recognized the practice as worthy of charitable status – meaning it has met the tests for what constitutes a religion.
Welcome again to Sunday Social Hour, where we tune into our social media communities on Facebook and Twitter to see what you all are talking about–and mostly, the chatter is about blessings of the animals. But here are some other, more sobering highlights from the week.
Colin Coward has a point about the CoE, and (perhaps too high) praise for the Episcopal Church, when he proposes a new campaign to end secrecy, subterfuge, and abuse in the church of his England over the matter of sexuality and the episcopacy.
Since the apostles understood that the source of all the gospel virtues was faith, the faith that the Lord so carefully required in the doing of miracles, that he so often praised in many, even non-Jews, that always receives what it asks for, and that they themselves had used in dispelling illness and driving out demons, . . . they said to the Lord, “Lord, since we have nothing good except from you, we ask that you increase our faith.”
Jim Naughton, our Editor in Chief here at Episcopal Café, was one of the first people to write about the actions of the Christian Theocrats
Here are accounts of congregations bouncing back from adversity with new growth and expansion, cooking warm food to care for their neighbors who are caring for others, and a diocese that’s stepped up its efforts in Haiti having been working there faithfully for decades.
Integrity USA, the voice of advocacy for LGBT Christians in the Episcopal Church, has issued a “call to action” to the Episcopal Church following the suicide of Tyler Clementi at Rutgers this week. Clementi is the fourth young person in the month of September to have committed suicide because of bullying and teasing due to their sexuali
The first two weekends in October have been traditionally the time when Episcopal parishes hold their annual “Blessing of the Animals” as a particular way of marking the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Generally that involves blessing people and their pets and praying for many happy years together. But what sort of support does the Church have for people who are grieving the loss of their animal companions?
Preaching on the difficult sayings of Jesus is like playing with fire. True, fire is quite useful. It warms us, cooks our food, and, for good or ill, liberates much of the energy that powers our civilization. Fire also cleanses, purifies, and refines. But fire is incredibly dangerous and destructive. If you play with fire, so the saying goes, you’re gonna get burned.